We the people will be heard!

As I write this, we are at a turning point in the history of America. This weekend a convocation has been called at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are converging in front of this historic place, where Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech.

It’s not convened by a political party, Republican, Democrat or Libertarian. It’s not even a tea-party event. It was conceived in the brain and heart of Glenn Beck, lately the host garnering the highest share for his time slot on Fox News.

As he has described it, it’s a citizen campaign to rediscover the intentions of our Founding Fathers, to honor our Constitution, to be reminded of the priorities and fundamental precepts that made America the greatest country in human history. And – without his even saying much about who will speak, what will transpire, or what he expects the results to be – multiplied thousands are canceling previous plans, making whatever arrangements necessary and driving, flying, riding and hitchhiking to Washington.

Today, many conservative speakers will address the vital, alarming issues of the day – the economy, the health-care catastrophe, the “progressive” socialist agenda of the president and his array of left-leaning, Alinsky-trained, Marxist-sympathizing “czars” and administrators.

Individuals with firsthand knowledge of the socialist attacks on our education process, our governmental functions, our universities and social programs will speak to their deeply concerned fellow citizens. And they’ll lay out some concrete, realistic and urgent proposals for action – action on the local, regional and state, and national levels.

This convocation isn’t controlled by anybody. Not even Glenn Beck. He simply suggested that it should take place, and then began to make the arrangements and get the legal permissions. He urged those who view his program and share his concerns to make plans to come to Washington and join him in his fervent attempt to sound the alarm across the nation and mount a citizen crusade to take back our government, to wrest it out of the hands of those who want to “fundamentally change the United States of America.”

He knows that most Americans like our country. They’re happy with our health-care system. They don’t want to be saddled with the $3 trillion of new debt this administration and the Nancy Pelosi /Harry Reid Congress have foisted on us. They don’t want the tax cuts enacted by the Bush administration rescinded, in effect levying even more multibillion dollar taxes on the jobs-creating businesses that are the last hope of our economy.

The citizens who congregate at the Lincoln Memorial want to have a voice again, to be heard and represented by the people they elected, not treated like chattel or indentured servants who can be forced to do whatever the leaders dictate. They want to hear from someone who can light the way to a return to constitutional government, the America we grew up in.

That someone is Glenn Beck, and the ones he invites to speak of how we came to be, the principles on which our government was founded … and hopefully, how we can reinstitute those principles. The idea is to restore the authority of the Constitution and a smaller, less top-heavy and bureaucratic government that actually listens to the citizens and performs their will.

It’s really troubling, almost inconceivable, that such a dramatic convocation should be necessary. But our schools have long since abandoned teaching our kids how this country truly came to be and the fundamental precepts on which it was founded. Gradually and increasingly, those charged with perpetuating and fulfilling the founders’ intentions have failed to keep that faith.

I talked yesterday to an accomplished attorney who actually said, “It doesn’t matter at all to me where Obama was born, here or Kenya or anywhere else. I like him and think he’s good for our country.” And with that sincere statement he’s admitting that either he doesn’t know that the Constitution requires that any man eligible to be president must be a natural born citizen, or he’s confessing that he doesn’t care anymore what the Constitution requires. Either way, the statement is very troubling and way too prevalent.

Wise old Ben Franklin, when asked at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention what the delegates had created, answered, “A republic – if you can keep it.” Well, millions of us are increasingly determined to keep it. We deeply resent the strong-arm takeover of our governmental processes, the almost dictatorial disregard for what the citizenry wants and the arrogant determination of our top leadership to ram its agenda down the throats of people who are struggling to resist and survive it.

WE WILL BE HEARD!

And not just in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial. There are tea-party events still springing up, almost spontaneously, all over America. Common, normal citizens are organizing gatherings and events just like the one in Washington.

I know. My neighbor just a few doors up our street, in the middle of Beverly Hills, asked me to pitch in and help organize a tea-party event right here in the middle of the entertainment capital of the world. And we’re doing it.

Sept. 26, from 2 to 4 on a Sunday afternoon, right in front of the Beverly Hills sign on Santa Monica Boulevard – we’re having a tea party. Much like the one in Washington, on a somewhat smaller scale. It won’t be hundreds of thousands; more like many hundreds of concerned citizens – Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Latino and black – just people who demand to be heard, who demand to have their rightful voice in our government.